The roots of Robert Bresson's uncompromising visual and narrative austerity are already in evidence in his first film, lending a calm intelligence to its theme of moral and religious ambiguity. The script, written by France's distinguished playwright and novelist Jean Giraudoux, follows a sophisticated young woman, Anne-Marie, into the closed world of a convent devoted to the rehabilitation of delinquent girls. At odds with the Mother Superior, she becomes attached to a rebellious girl, Thérèse, whose indifference to her ministrations drives concern into an obsession. Anne-Marie herself becomes "delinquent"; her personal regeneration progresses in parallel fashion to the girl's rehabilitation. "...plot contrivances are quite obliterated by the film's main purpose, the delineation of a spiritual conflict, exactly analyzed, between two young women, against a richly described background of convent life-its ritual, its dedication, its formidable self discipline and, at times, ruthlessness." (Gavin Lambert, Sight and Sound)